What’s big with lots of hair and soon to be at the National Museum of Scotland? Fear not, you are not about to hear the punch line to a bad mammoth joke, but instead discover more about the latest fascinating exhibition to come to Edinburgh.

Mammoths of the Ice Age is set to open this Friday (24 January) at the museum on Chambers Street and will run through to Sunday 20 April. In this major exhibition, you can explore the mysteries of the Ice Age and uncover what life was like for the mammoth and the mastodon, the two iconic mammals of this era.

Originally curated by The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the exhibition consists of an extensive collection of objects from the Ice Age which have been brought together for the first time in the UK. Look at some of the oldest human art in existence and feel woolly mammoth hair, which could grow up to a metre long. You can also see an exact replica of a 42,000-year-old baby woolly mammoth, and learn why early humans both hunted and honoured these majestic animals.

Check out the quirky trailer for the exhibition below, or play the Save the Mammoth game and have a go at guiding the mammoth through floating icebergs.

The mammoth fun doesn’t end at the museum; when out and about in Edinburgh, keep your eyes peeled for Murdo. This life-size mammoth will be appearing on Lothian Buses right through until the exhibition ends, and if you spot him, you could be in for the chance to win some super prizes. Find out more about the #spotthemammoth competition.

Visit this exhibition and you’ll learn a few things that might just surprise you. For example, did you know that not all mammoths lived in frozen climates? Some mammoths sunned themselves on islands off the coast of southern California. Which brings me nicely to an actual bad mammoth joke: why were mammoths not allowed to go swimming at the beach? Because their trunks kept falling down!